For Web programming languages, JavaScript is the most widely used language past HTML itself. And if you’re learning JavaScript, you will also need to familiarize yourself with a JavaScript Library known as jQuery.

Simply put, jQuery helps you write less and do more. The library was developed by John Resig, an expert in the JavaScript programming language, and presented in 2006’s BarCamp NYC gathering. Resig’s goal was to create a way to take repetitive task blocks in JavaScript and strip down the unnecessary markup to leave short and understandable “recipes” called methods.

The most important features of jQuery include:

• HTML manipulation
• CSS manipulation
• DOM manipulation
• DOM element selection
• HTML event methods
• Utilities
• AJAX
• Effects and Animations
• JSON Parsing

Let’s also look at a few of the advantages of using jQuery:

• Makes programming faster and more efficient.
• Easier to learn because it supports the same JavaScript style coding.
• Because it is open-source, it has a huge community, which means constant support and add-ons.
• Has extensive documentation.
• You get a ton of plug-ins that let you extend its functionality as needed.
• Works well with other JavaScript libraries.
• Simplifies sending asynchronous HTTP requests to the server without reloading the page.
• You can create dynamic effects through the application by calling on several animation methods.
• Event handling is reduced to a few lines of code.

As useful as jQuery is for simplifying individual functions, programmers can extend it even more in the form of plugins. These plugins are created by jQuery users based on code found in the library. These can be found on the official jQuery UI (User Interface) repository and are curated by jQuery’s professional community. Some of the most useful jQuery plugins include Effect, TaggingJS, Autocomplete, Scrollmagic, Fine Uploader, Blueimp Gallery, Slick, AnimateScroll, and Infinite AJAX Scroll.